How Do I Loathe You?
by MissFuneralSong
Summary: Daniel is becoming very frustrated with his freighter-mate Charlotte's attitude. He's desperate to find a way to tell her that he doesn't like her any more, but his confession will have to wait - Jack has disappeared from camp. An Anti-Charladay story.
1. Redheaded Hausfrau

Disclaimer: I don't own Lost, or any of its characters. If I did, I'd be off writing _episodes_, not fanfiction.

AN: This story is set after the events of 4x10, and was written because there are far too many fics out there that ship Charlotte with Daniel. I myself love Daniel but can't _stand _Charlotte, so I decided to do something a little different. Enjoy.

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HOW DO I LOATHE YOU?: A LOST ANTI-CHARLOTTE FANFICTION

If you're a Charladayer and therefore upset by this, by all means write your congressman.

Chapter One: Redheaded Hausfrau

_'See, Dan, I told you. They're convinced we're trying to kill them. Might as well keep playing the part.'_

_'Dammit, Charlotte... That right there, that right... Your, your attitude, your very bad attitude, is exactly why they don't trust us.'_

What he'd really wanted to say - what he'd wanted to _scream _at her - was something more along the lines of, 'Dammit, Charlotte, why the hell can't you just shut up? All you're doing is making them hate us more!' But Daniel Faraday was far too polite to ever be able to tell her that. He was also a little scared of her and didn't want her to pistol-whip him in the head or anything like that. He wouldn't put it past her; she had the eyes of a mad woman and a temperament to match. All the poor physicist could do was attempt to keep the peace between the two of them and the survivors, whilst simultaneously undertaking the very difficult task of not pissing Charlotte off. This was making his normally elastic patience twang.

It was the morning after they'd trekked out into the jungle with Sun and Jin to find surgical equipment. Daniel was sitting next to his comrade, who was lightly snoring, flipping absently through his diary and trying to think of an out, some way he could tell the redhead that he _didn't _like her and didn't appreciate her constantly following him around and ruining his already shaky relations with the Oceanic survivors. If he wanted to be blunt, just come right out and say it, he'd most likely need to wear some sort of protective headgear - and something for his more _delicate _area as well. That plan had its flaws, since just about all there was to work with in the way of armour-making was palm leaves and coconuts, which wasn't reassuring in the least.

Charlotte Staples Lewis, Daniel had learned by now, was a very aggressive and controlling person when she wanted to be; he wondered on occasion whether she grew up with five brothers, to turn out like that. Now that she'd latched on to him - now that she _liked _him - it was going to be extremely hard to shake her off. All of the plans he went through in his mind were doomed to failure, so he'd have to come up with something really _big_, something that'd stick.

He chalked it up to lack of sleep when he briefly considered rejecting Charlotte through song.

Reasoning that a little rest would help him plan better, Faraday put his diary back into his pack and nestled into his blanket, keeping as far from Charlotte as their tiny shelter would allow, so as to not wake up spooning with her like a character out of one of those unsavoury teen dramas.

But sleeping anywhere in Charlotte's vicinity, it turned out, was a bad idea indeed. When the pink haze that was somewhere between unconsciousness and awareness cleared, Daniel blinked his eyes open, squinting against the bright sunset which was shining straight into his eyes.

'Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty,' said Charlotte's voice sarcastically, from somewhere within the blazing wall of sunlight. 'God, Dan, do you know how long you've been asleep?'

_Aw, crap, _thought Daniel, ignoring the unenthusiastic protests from the part of his brain that didn't like him to swear. _She's got that tone of voice again. This must be what a bad marriage is like._

'Come on, up-up!' she ordered, standing over him and kicking his foot lightly until he staggered into an upright position. 'There's some kind of a fuss over at the doctor's tent; apparently he's gone AWOL. Let's go.' Without even waiting for Daniel's consent, the redheaded hausfrau grabbed him by his thin wrist, towing him over to Jack's tent, where a small group was gathered around a seething Juliet and a confused Kate.

'What's happened?' asked Charlotte imperiously when they reached the scene of the disturbance. She strode through the crowd, directly toward the other two women, while the reluctant physicist hang back at the edge of the throng.

Juliet ran her hands roughly through her hair, showing every sign of I-can't-deal-with-this-crap-itis. 'Jack's gone,' she replied, looking around at the treeline in a futile effort to find the missing doctor. 'He left his tent and wandered off somewhere, and I don't know where he is. He'll end up tearing his stitches because he's such a damn glutton for punishment!'

'Well, I _told _you to put a guard on his tent,' Kate accused. 'You should know what Jack's like by now.'

'I can't believe you're blaming me!' exclaimed the blonde woman. 'If you were so worried, _you _should have been watching him!'

While the assembled survivors were watching a catfight ensue, Charlotte stalked back to where Daniel was standing and tried to maneuver him away.

'Come on, Dan, this hasn't got anything to do with us,' she urged. 'Let's go and do something else.'

But Faraday just continued listening to the argument, gently tugging his arm from her grasp. 'I think we should help,' he said quietly. 'Jack could really be hurt, Charlotte. I think we should help them.'

'Dan - ' came the redhead's objection. It was ignored. Daniel was already wandering timidly over to Kate and Juliet, trying to stay out of their way in case they decided to engage in fisticuffs.

At this point, Kate was accusing the ex-Other of 'falling into Jack's arms the second I was gone', and Juliet was retaliating with 'well, I can't help it if he got sick of you jumping into bed with James all the time'. Then there was a skilfully executed slap-in-the-face-and-storm-off from the brunette, which left Juliet in the centre of a rapidly evaporating ring of spectators, clutching at her now-red cheek and glaring daggers at the retreating figure of Kate. Faraday took this as his opportune moment.

'Uh, excuse me...Juliet?'

'_What_?' she snapped, whipping her head round and directing her glare at him. She relented when she saw the look of frozen horror on his face. 'What is it?'

'Well, uh, Charlotte and I' - his fellow freightie sniffed disapprovingly at her inclusion - 'were thinking...maybe we could help you look for Jack?' Daniel attempted a friendly smile, but after having Juilet look at him like she was going to rip his head off and pull his spinal cord out through his neck, his heart just wasn't in it.

'You know what? Sure,' she told them gratefully. 'Since I can't depend on _Kate's _help any more. Thanks, you two.' She beamed at them, a definite improvement on her expression of murderous rage. 'You'd really be doing me a huge favour.'

Faraday chose to blank out the frustrated noise Charlotte made the second Juliet walked off to enlist some more members for her own personal Coast Guard. He couldn't understand her reluctance to help others, nor her 'our people and their people' attitude toward the survivors; to Daniel they were all people, so they might as well stick together. The lack of concern his boatmate showed for everyone except herself and him provided yet another reason to 'break up' with her. It wasn't in Daniel's nature to be uncaring, but it was certainly in Charlotte's.

'We should probably set off,' he suggested meekly, trying to stem her bad temper. 'He just had surgery, after all, so he couldn't have gone very far.'

'Hmph,' said Charlotte, folding her arms and striding off to the treeline. Daniel had to jog to keep up.

_To be continued..._

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And there you have it. Chapter two has already been written, so expect to see it sometime tomorrow. I haven't started work on three yet, though, and reviews are the delicious cookies that fuel my creative process, hint hint. See you next time.


	2. Awkward Silence

AN: I like the word Lidocaine. And Bernard is a bunch of fun to write. Read on, my pretties...

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HOW DO I LOATHE YOU?: A LOST ANTI-CHARLOTTE FANFICTION  
Brought to you today by OMGWTFPOLARBEAR Annoying Redhead Repellant: The _only _way to avoid a brain aneurysm!  
WARNING: This chapter contains Jack Shephard. Don't say you weren't warned.

Chapter Two: Awkward Silence

'Vincent!'

Jack Shephard stumbled through yet another identical stretch of jungle, clutching at his right side in pain and hot in pursuit of the rogue labrador. He'd seen the thing run off in the early hours of the morning, through a gap in his tarpaulin home away from home, and since no one else had been awake, Jack had decided to take the recapture of the dog onto himself. It was a stupid thing to do when you'd just had surgery, he knew, but he just felt so..._useless_ lying there. The position of Fearless Leader had been thrust upon him back when the plane first crashed, and since then he'd rather gotten used to it - even come to enjoy it. His overwhelming need to save everyone, to fix everything, made him constantly restless and so, with his usual total disregard of his own limits, Jack had deemed it a good idea to go gallavanting around the jungle in search of Walt's dog.

_Besides, _he'd thought to himself when he'd set out, _I can hardly even feel anything. It doesn't even hurt._

The doctor was currently cursing his own recklessness, telling himself over and over again that he should've known better. After an hour and a half of chasing Vincent, the Lidocaine had felt that it was outstaying its welcome and completely vacated Jack's body, allowing its old buddy Excruciating Pain to settle in. He couldn't see the dog any more, but he staggered onward, trying to take his mind off the fact that his entire right side was, by now, one gigantic booboo by thinking about all the things he'd give up for a couple of pain pills. Sawyer was definitely on the list, along with dogs that didn't know how to stay put. And _Yahtzee!_; he'd never been a fan.

--

Juliet had managed to drum up three more volunteers for Operation Jack Rescue, and so she went off to play commando with the Korean couple while Daniel had to make do with Charlotte and Bernard for company. The redhead was stomping her way through the underbrush ahead of him, clearly less than ecstatic about the turn of events, while Bernard was shooting both of them shifty, distrusting looks when he was certain that they could see him. All in all, it made for a slightly less awful time than Faraday would have had with just Charlotte; had there been nobody else around, she'd have bullied him relentlessly about forcing her to take part in the stupid expedition. Regardless of the fact that Bernard was narrowing his eyes at the two freighties so often that it looked as though he had a terrible squint, Daniel was grateful for the older man's presence.

Icebreakers had never been the reclusive physicist's forte, but he made an effort when he needed to. He started with a standard, generally inoffensive question: 'So...what did you used to do for a living, Bernard?'

The man gave him a long, slow look - with a hint of squint - and decided that Daniel probably wouldn't jump on him and garrotte him with a piano wire of mysterious origins if he answered. 'I was a dentist,' he said cautiously.

'A dentist,' Faraday echoed, considering this with polite interest for several seconds. Then he said innocently, 'I didn't know they taught Morse code in dentistry school.' Bernard merely grunted evasively, so Daniel let it be.

But Charlotte couldn't. 'Quite an interesting coincidence, isn't it? What, were you one of those hardcore GI orthodontists or something?' Her tone was sarcastic, and baiting. She was cruising for an argument because she was in a bad mood - and Daniel was caught standing right between her and her target. He groaned inwardly.

'You're just upset because your little lie got exposed, Ginger. If you had just told the truth, you wouldn't have a thing to worry about.'

'Charlotte, please,' pleaded Daniel, always the peacekeeper. 'Don't argue. We're here to find the doctor, okay? Let's just do that and get back to camp without causing any conflicts or anything.'

'One more thing before we do, if you don't mind,' the other man chimed in, this time addressing Faraday. 'What did they mean, in that message? When they said the doctor's fine?'

The three of them walked on in pregnant silence for a few yards. Charlotte didn't even turn to look back at him, but Daniel could feel the words _keep your mouth shut _wafting from her like very bossy perfume. And he was fine with it this time; he was sick of having to lie to these people.

Eventually Bernard filled the lull in conversation with, 'Yeah, I thought that would probably be your answer.'

--

Jack had lost Vincent's trail. Not that he knew what a trail even _looked _like to begin with, but he was positive that he'd lost it nonetheless. Although his pain had vastly worsened, and continued to do so, he felt that he'd be letting the dog down if he stopped to rest, so on he plodded. There wasn't any thought informing his actions; Jack's leg muscles were walking a familiar path through the thick leaves and mud while his mind was more concerned with finding the stupid animal so that he could go back to his nice, comfy tent and sleep for a month.

He only realised where exactly he'd been headed when he arrived there. The caves were still just how he'd left them.

--

Unbeknownst to the hapless doctor, as well as to the blonde ex-Other, Kate had been tracking Jack for the past half-hour. His trail was erratic, zigzagging every so often as though he was disorientated. Which, Kate conceded, he probably was - people who go for a leisurely hike through the Jungle of Mystery the day after they've had an appendectomy generally tend not to feel as healthy as they were the day they were born.

Jack was still a ways ahead of her, since he'd had God knows how much of a head start, but she was moving a lot faster than he'd be able to. She'd catch up soon.

She just hoped she'd beat the black smoke monster to him.

--

A further fifteen minutes had been spent in the wonderful world of Awkward Silence, which Daniel wasn't accustomed to but which he seemed to become mired in more and more since meeting Charlotte. She had a way about her that just...put people off. That was the mildest way he could think to phrase it.

Faraday felt no end of guilt about these mean thoughts he kept having, but he just couldn't help it. His redheaded boatmate seemed to bring out a hostile side of him that had not hitherto been seen; a couple of nights ago he'd been shocked to find that he'd had a dream where she got eaten by a polar bear. Daniel _really _just wanted to be able to tell Charlotte to go away, because the feelings that the mere sound of her voice invoked in him...they were frightening. He'd never held such severe disdain for anyone in his entire life.

After the passage of several more minutes, Daniel realised that Bernard was muttering something to himself. He turned to look at the man, walking backwards over the relatively safe stretch of flat ground. 'Are you...okay, Bernard?'

'What?' Bernard seemed to have been startled back to the here-and-now by the sound of Daniel's voice. 'Oh, yeah, yeah, fine. I was just thinking about something my wife likes to say.' He threw a quick glance at Charlotte in case she was going to pass comment.

'Yeah? What's that?' asked Faraday, genuinely interested. He knew what Charlotte would tell him if she was currently on speaking terms with the world: _Mind your own business, Dan. These people don't like us, anyway, so let's not get to know them any more than we need to._ Well, he wasn't going to listen to his inner Charlotte; if he couldn't rebel against her bossiness at least a tiny bit, he might as well go find a leash right then and there.

'She likes to remind me that I'm a dentist, I'm not Rambo,' Bernard replied. 'But I tell you what, with everything I've been through on this damn island...I sure don't feel like a dentist any more.' He grinned sheepishly, letting some amiability permeate his mask of impassiveness.

Daniel gave a small smile in return, taking this as a sign that Charlotte hadn't shot relations with the castaways _completely _to hell. Not yet, anyway.

_To be continued..._

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And that's another chapter down! Remember: reviews feed me better than food does! _Better _than _food_! Seriously. See you next time.


	3. Camaraderie

HOW DO I LOATHE YOU? A LOST ANTI-CHARLOTTE FANFICTION  
Don't worry: Jack hasn't got any dialogue in this one, I swear.

Chapter Three: Camaraderie

It was about an hour later, and Daniel, Charlotte and Bernard were still tromping through the jungle in search of the doctor, the redhead stalking along angrily in the lead. Faraday had hoped that her mood would improve with time, but no such luck; every passing minute proved to make her more irritable until she finally stopped dead in front of the two men and whipped round furiously to face them, fixing Daniel in particular with her fierce, mad, blue-eyed glare.

'We're going back now, Dan,' she ordered harshly. 'It's going to be dark soon, and I _refuse _to be fannying about in this jungle in the pitch-black night, looking for someone who's too stupid to stay put after he's just had _surgery_!'

'What? But...Charlotte,' Daniel protested tentatively, using the most calming tone of voice he could manage, 'come on, Charlotte, we agreed to help, didn't we? I mean, we can't just - '

'No, Dan,' she snapped, interrupting him rudely. Bernard frowned at her, clearly discovering what Daniel already knew about the way she seemed to repel people. 'No, _you _agreed to help. I never said that I wanted to, that I even _cared _what happens to that idiot. If he rips his stitches or gets eaten by something, it'll be his own fault, won't it?'

The physicist's mouth hung open slightly at the malice in these words; Charlotte had spoken them as though she _really _meant it. He couldn't believe the extent of her shocking indifference - he'd never imagined that her uncaring mentality extended so far as to be unconcerned whether someone lived or died. It gave Daniel an unpleasant, bubbling feeling of anger, right down in the pit of his stomach, and filled him with a courage that he couldn't remember ever having felt before. _This...this is it,_ he realised. Finally, he felt unafraid to voice his true feelings towards her, to really let her know, once and for all, what a terrible person she was.

Faraday was vaguely aware that Charlotte had grabbed him by the wrist, trying to tug him back the way they'd come, while Bernard was protesting and arguing about the importance of rescuing Jack. Daniel stood his ground, not letting his colleague pull him away, and it made her mad with frustration.

'_Come on_, Daniel!' she was telling him, heaving his arm harder. 'I told you, I am _not_ going to be caught out here at night!'

'No, Charlotte,' he said, and he was as surprised as she was by his firm tone. 'I'm not going back yet.'

The woman's eyes widened; she looked as though he'd just dumped a bucket of icy water over her head. 'Wh - don't be stupid, Dan, of course you are!' She gave his arm a jerk, but still he didn't budge.

The older man strode to Daniel's side, speaking very insistently to Charlotte despite the fact that she appeared to be ignoring him. 'Now listen, sister, we are not taking a _step _back toward that beach camp until we've found our doctor,' he said. Then he seemed to be struck by a sudden inspiration, his face becoming deadly serious as he firmly told the redhead, 'Live together, die alone.'

She stopped pulling on Daniel for a moment to consider the man, and his statement, with a confused and impatient expression. 'Am I supposed to understand that?' she asked insolently.

Bernard immediately clarified, feeling as though - by getting the woman to at least look at him - he was one step closer to convincing her that they should continue their search. Or at least getting her to shut up. 'It's something Jack says. If we don't live together, then we'll die alone. That's why we need to find him, understand? We can't just turn around and leave him behind.'

Amazed beyond words, Faraday could actually see in her eyes that Charlotte was giving Bernard's argument due consideration; an act this reasonable was something he'd never seen in his boatmate until now. He could feel some of his anger and defiance ebbing away - but he didn't dare let go of all of it, because he knew that one moment of rationality was not enough to change a person forever. Charlotte would revert back to her usual stubborn self eventually, and when she did...he'd need those emotions. That's when he'd tell her.

'All right,' she conceded, speaking slowly, as if the words were hesitant to escape her lips. 'We'll keep going on for a while longer, I suppose. _But_, if we haven't found him by nightfall, we _are _going to turn back, understood?' Her tone made it clear that this was an order, and not negotiable.

Daniel knew that this was as close as they were going to get to camaraderie from the anthropologist, so he muttered a quick "Okay then", glancing at Bernard to see whether he'd do the same. The older man knew from Charlotte's tone - as well as from his experience with married life - that debating the point further was a _very _bad idea. He gave the woman a curt nod, which she accepted stiffly, and they resumed their expedition in silence.

--

'Jack!' Kate exclaimed, dashing through the caves' gaping entrance to where the doctor was crouched, clutching at his side in apparent agony.

Upon closer examination, she could see that he was white-faced, sweating profusely and barely able to move. He flinched when she tried to shift him, clenching his teeth and groaning in pain, and Kate noticed with mounting terror that the right side of his shirt was stained with a quickly-spreading patch of bright red. Panicking, the brunette stood up and spun around, urgently trying to find somebody who could help, but there was no one. She couldn't do this - stopping the bleeding wouldn't be too hard, but Jack needed another doctor to fix the damage he'd inflicted on himself, and Kate definitely wasn't cut out for abdominal surgery.

Beyond that, she was petrified. For all the moronic things Jack did, he was still her friend, she still _cared _about him - and she couldn't handle the pressure of this moment, having to prevent him from dying because they were all alone out here. But she had to do _something_; trying to help and not knowing what to do was better than being too afraid to do _anything_. Breathing in a frantic, holding-back-tears way, Kate ran her hands roughly through her thick hair, closed her eyes and...counted to five.

--

It had started to rain.

Daniel was cursing the giant grey raincloud floating over their heads, because not only was it making the three of them freezing cold and soaked to the bone, but it was also obscuring most of the already-feeble light from the setting sun - which was making Charlotte complain.

'They can't have any _normal _weather on this bloody island, can they?' she was raving, having to yell to be heard over the sound of the raindrops beating the increasingly muddy jungle floor, completely oblivious to the fact that both of her companions were trying their utmost to ignore her. 'It's miserable out here! _And _I can't see a bloody thing any more! I say we turn back!'

This got Bernard going. 'And _I _say we don't,' he countered, eyes full of defiance. 'You said you'd turn back at nightfall - well, it's not nightfall yet!'

'It's just as bad,' Charlotte shouted. 'We're going to slip in this mud and go over a cliff or something! Your doctor's not worth that!'

Faraday sighed, unheard due to the rainfall, and trudged on with his head down while the other two kept bickering. He didn't dare voice the opinion that maybe it'd be a _good _thing if the redhead slipped and took a nosedive into a pit of rocky death. He felt terrible for having had the thought in the first place, and he was certain that Charlotte would piledrive him if he mentioned it.

Cringing nervously as Bernard and the redhead graduated from petty disagreement into an all-out row, Daniel failed to notice that something had zigzagged through the mess of trees alongside them for a moment before disappearing into the underbrush. If he had been paying attention, however, he'd have been surprised, to say the least; it had looked like a remarkably sentient wisp of black smoke.

_To be continued..._

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Oh, Charlotte and Bernard, you're such fun. Anyway, if you liked what you read, please review! Even if it's just a couple of words, the sentiment is very much appreciated and inspires me to get the next chapter up faster. See you next time!


	4. Lifeline

HOW DO I LOATHE YOU? A LOST ANTI-CHARLOTTE FANFICTION

More Juliet was inevitable; you know it, I know it.

Chapter Four: Lifeline

'The sun's almost set,' announced Juliet to Sun and Jin. She knew full well that they could see this for themselves, but she felt it needed to be said, since the three of them had long ago run out of conversation topics and had since been trudging along in relative silence. Not that the blonde had made too much effort; she was far too worried about Jack, and the consequences of his recklessness, to discuss the warm stretch of weather they'd been having recently. Well, warm up until the abrupt rainstorm of ten minutes ago. Thanks to that, the ex-Other and the two Koreans were sopping wet, freezing cold and utterly miserable, and on top of that, the rain had washed away the majority of Jack's trail. The I-can't-deal-with-this-crap-itis was beginning to flare up again.

Sun, who was walking steadily beside her husband as Juliet led the way, asked the question that the other woman had been rather dreading having to answer: 'Can you still see Jack's footprints in all this mud?'

It was fortunate that she couldn't see Juliet's face, plastered as it was with rare awkwardness and frustration. There was a slight pause before she answered. 'A little. Probably enough.' Immediately, she knew she shouldn't have said 'probably'.

Raising her eyebrows, Sun turned to Jin and there was a brief exchange in Korean - although Juliet didn't need to be a linguist to venture a guess at what they were discussing. She allowed herself an internal wince and spared one area of thought that wasn't busy worrying or being frustrated to recall the old adage: it's lonely at the top. While you're trying to lead them, all your subordinates are muttering away to each other and planning to usurp you.

There was a lull in the hushed discussion between Jin and his wife, and so Sun finally asked: 'What does that mean, "probably enough"?'

Juliet tried, as most new leaders do when having their leadership questioned, to mask uncertainty with false confidence. 'Don't worry, Sun,' se said in what she thought was a reassuring tone. 'I can see bits and pieces. I know where he's going; just leave it to me, okay?'

She could tell by the look on the other woman's face that her tone hadn't been reassuring in the _least_.

--

They were still going. He couldn't believe it.

Daniel had never met two people who loved to oppose one another as much as Charlotte and Bernard. It had only been ten minutes, sure, but it'd felt to him like an eternity; his two companions seemed not to have ceased fighting even to draw breath the entire time. One of them couldn't begin a statement without immediate interruption by the other, and Faraday was beginning to hope that Jack would hear the noise and come running, to save them all the trouble of having to walk together any more.

The sun was now a deep orange, and was barely visible through the trees and stalks of bamboo as it sunk slowly beneath the horizon. The entire eastern half of the sky was turning darker and darker shades of blue, and it was quickly spreading to the rest. Impending nightfall was making Charlotte edgy - and unfortunately, when Charlotte got edgy, so did everyone else. At least it wasn't raining now. At least Daniel could find solace in that.

'See that sky?' fumed the redhead, pointing to it in case either of the men walking behind her didn't know where the sky was. 'See how dark it's gotten? It's _nightfall_! We need to go _back_!'

'We still haven't found Jack,' Bernard replied irritably. Daniel simply shook his head halfheartedly; it was always the same disagreement, replaying over and over again.

Charlotte whipped her head round to face the older man, her hair flying in its wake like an inextinguishable blaze. 'I don't give a rat's _ass _about your precious doctor!' she snapped, glaring in a mad and intimidatingly blue way at the dentist. 'Who _knows _what could be lurking in this jungle! I'm - '

Suddenly, they all stopped dead as a deafening, terrible howl split the air. It sounded very much unlike any animal call Daniel had ever heard. It was more like a machine...

'Oh no,' breathed Bernard, a cold sweat breaking out on his face. 'We need to run. _Now_.' His tone was insistent, to put it lightly.

'Why?' Charlotte asked him, not taking her eyes off the direction from which the noise had come; they could now see a clear path being forged by the thing, as whatever it was uprooted plants, entire _trees_. And the occasional large rock. 'What _is _that?'

She was jerked sharply in the opposite direction to that of the creature by Bernard, who had grabbed her arm and Daniel's and bolted for the shelter of a nearby bamboo thicket.

'It's the damned _monster_!' he hissed.

--

The blood had stopped oozing from Jack's open wound, for the most part, but Kate knew that there was probably some kind of internal damage as well. And she couldn't keep pressing down on the torn stitches with the doctor's hastily-removed, bundled-up shirt forever. She needed for someone to come. _Anyone._ At this point, even Vincent would be a help.

Vincent; the dog's name had been stuck in her head since a few minutes ago, when she'd asked a barely conscious Jack the reason he'd been stupid enough to run through the jungle alone so soon after his operation. The reply had been barely audible, and somewhat slurred, but Kate was positive she'd heard right. He had ripped his damn sutures and was going to bleed out because he wanted to find a _lost dog_. It was completely reckless, completely idiotic, completely suicidal...and completely Jack. She sighed, removing one of her hands from his side to wipe the rapidly beading sweat from her forehead. This left a smear of blood on her face.

Jack was lying down now, on the same broken-off section of airline seating that he'd lain a near-dead Boone out on, forever ago. There were still a few weathered red stains on the blue cushions; and now, thanks to the doctor's wound, there were a few more. Apart from the seats, some more airplane debris and some junk left behind when the castaways had abandoned the caves - and of course, the bodies of Adam and Eve, nestled in their little alcoves - the place was empty. Kate glanced desperately around for what seemed the hundredth time, straining to see whether anyone was emerging from the darkening jungle to help her at last. But still, there was no one. She'd tried to restrain herself, to stop herself from screaming for assistance lest someone - or something - dangerous hear her, but she couldn't hold it in any longer.

'Help!' cried Kate, her voice breaking slightly with the stress. Clearing her throat, she tried again. 'Hey! Someone! I need help! Uh - ' She cast out for a name, and with it a solid thought, a _lifeline_. ' - Juliet! _Juliet_, are you out there?'

Several seconds passed in tense silence, save Jack's delirious mutterings about misbehaving dogs. Then Kate's heart leapt halfway up her esophagus as there was a distant rustling noise, and the distinct sound of rapid footfalls. A great 'Ha!' of relief escaped the woman's lips as the figures of Juliet, Sun and Jin came bursting from the underbrush.

'Oh God, Jack!' exclaimed the blonde, dashing over to the man and removing her pack, swinging it up onto the seat beside his leg. 'Kate, how long ago did you find him here?' she demanded. When Kate did nothing but simply stare exhaustedly at the bag, Juliet repeated: 'Kate! _How long_?'

'Oh! Uh, I don't know, about fifteen minutes?'

'Fifteen minutes,' she murmured. 'Dammit, Jack.' The ex-Other removed some bandages and spare sutures from her pack, along with a syringe and a vial of what was most likely Lidocaine or some other painkiller, laying them out carefully alongside her. She placed a hand gently but firmly on Kate's arm. 'You can take the pressure off now. I'm going to sew him up.'

Kate obeyed dazedly, sitting back and wiping her bloody hands absently on the legs of her jeans. Sun knelt down next to her and draped a comforting arm around her shoulders. 'He'll be fine now,' she told the brunette, who nodded mutely.

Watched by the other two women, and by Jin, Juliet slid her hands into a pair of rubber gloves and set to work.

_To be continued..._

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Fourth chapter down! And it took me long enough, huh? If you've just read this, please try and spare a second to write a review, as it does wonders for my self-esteem! And a big thank you to the following people who have done so already: Jesus.Lives, Da Phoenix 13 and Dark Duchess and Shadow Queen. I appreciate it!


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